TRACE ELEMENTAL SIGNATURES IMPARTED FROM REAGENTS OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL REPROCESSING

摘要

Reagents used in spent nuclear fuel recycling impart unique contaminant patterns into theproduct stream of the process. Efforts are underway at Pacific Northwest National Laboratoryto characterize and understand the relationship between these patterns and the process thatcreated them. A main challenge to this effort, recycling processes that were employed at theHanford site from 1944-1989 have been retired for decades. This precludes directmeasurements of the contaminant patterns that propagate within product streams of thesefacilities. In the absence of any operating recycling facilities at Hanford, we have taken amultipronged approach to cataloging contaminants of U.S. reprocessing activities using: (1)historical records summarizing contaminants within the final Pu metal button product of thesefacilities; (2) samples of opportunity that represent intermediate products of these processes;and (3) lab-scale experiments and model simulations designed to replicate contaminant patternsat each stage of nuclear fuel reprocessing. Examples are provided here to illustrate how each ofthese approaches may be utilized in concert to help reconstruct contaminant patterns within theU.S. Pu stockpile produced at the Hanford site.